


Inimitable

by sarcasticsra



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 05:49:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9109390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasticsra/pseuds/sarcasticsra
Summary: The time for waiting is over. This is it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flammenkobold](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flammenkobold/gifts).



> I hope you like this! My brain kind of went in a weird direction with the prompt, but I hope it works. (Note: spoilers right up through episode 79.)

One of the first lessons she learns--that anyone learns, really--is that magic requires control.

This seems obvious at first, even elementary, but looking back, it’s probably the hardest lesson she’s ever learned.

Because it’s not just that, _of course_ , some spells are more complex and require more components and concentration, it’s that magic itself needs to be controlled--but not too long, not too rigidly, or you risk not being able to access it at all.

It can’t just be control. It has to be precisely the right _kind_ of control. She’s pretty sure this is the main reason not everyone can do magic. She _knows_ it’s the main reason Percy hates magic, though she’s never shared that thought.

She also knows, of course, that she still has a lot left to learn. What she didn’t know, at least not until now, is _why_.

This lesson may be even harder.

\---

Allura asks her to choose: who will be the one to stay behind, likely in safety, to maintain the barrier over Whitestone? Allura doesn’t phrase it that way, of course, but that’s the question running through her mind during the entire discussion.

The party votes, as they always do, but they’ve never truly settled anything that way, and don’t this time either. Still, a decision is made: Allura will stay behind, and Gilmore will come with them to face Thordak.

There is a conversation following this that she and Vax never have:

(“Vax,” Keyleth says, looking over to meet his eyes. “You wanted Allura to come, didn’t you?”

Vax looks slightly surprised. “I did. Why?”

“Just checking,” she says. “Because she’s faced Thordak before, right?”

“Exactly. She has experience.” He shrugs. “I think that could be invaluable.”

“Gilmore is powerful, too, of course,” she says, and he nods.

“Oh, obviously. He’ll be a help, too.”

“So it was just that, then? Why you wanted Allura to come?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...Whitestone will probably be the safest place to be once this starts.”

“No guarantees, though.”

“It’s okay, you know.” She nudges his arm. “If you just wanted to keep him safe.”

Vax averts his eyes. “I’d have you stay behind, and my sister, if I thought I had a snowball’s chance in the Nine Hells of convincing either of you to actually do it.”

She smiles at him, gently. “No, Vax. You wouldn’t.”

He’s silent for a long moment, just meeting her eyes. 

With a quiet sigh, he finally says, “I’ve just…I’ve hurt him so much already.”)

What happens instead is essentially the same, if much simpler:

Keyleth walks up to Vax, holds his hand for a moment, then kisses him on the cheek. At his curious look, she just smiles slightly. He nods.

She thinks that says enough for both of them.

\---

Vax is the one to actually ask Gilmore to come with them, but Keyleth does have a moment alone with him shortly before they leave.

“I don’t suppose there is really _truly_ any being ready for something like this,” he tells her, “but I imagine we’re as close as it's possible to be.”

Keyleth nods. “I think so,” she says. “Be careful out there, Gilmore. I want to see you come home in one piece.” She can’t help but glance at Vax after she says it.

Gilmore’s eyes follow her gaze. He lifts an eyebrow slightly. “I might say the same.”

She touches his hand, smiling up at him, and neither of them needs to say anything else.

\---

Vax hasn’t been practicing magic for long, and Keyleth catches glimpses of how he’s working to balance it. She almost thinks she’d label it a struggle, but he seems to be...enjoying it?

Of course, Vax is certainly used to strife. Perhaps learning to enjoy it is the only way to endure so much of it.

Just before they arrive in Emon, she rests a hand on his shoulder. “We can do this,” she says, though she’s not sure if she’s talking to him or to herself.

Vax seems to know, because he pretends it’s for him. “You sure?”

“Not at all,” she says, smiling a little. “But I figure we can fake it ‘til we make it.”

“It’s worked for us this long.” He smiles back, squeezes her hand, and kisses her.

It’s odd, how his kisses feel different, just slightly, as though the threads of their magic are meeting and...resonating. 

A symphony in composition.

\---

Gilmore falls unconscious during the battle, and there’s nothing Keyleth can do about it. She’s too far to get to him, and of course Pike and Kima are much closer and much more effective healers than she is anyway, but for those precious few seconds before Kima manages to revive him…

 _Concentrate_ , she has to remind herself. _He’d want you to concentrate._

So she does.

\---

“Thordak is dead.”

Hearing those words is not relief. It’s knowledge that the time has come. It’s duty.

She can bear the weight on her shoulders.

Raishan is next.

\---

There’s one brief, solitary moment during the meteor swarm when time seems to slow.

Ash and dust and fire rage around her, but it feels like she’s suspended in midair, her vision clear, and she can see, for just that second, _everything_ :

Raishan, up at the top of the chamber, smiling, smug;

Vex, being flung opposite her;

Vax, dodging a column of flame;

Gilmore, just rushing into the chamber;

\--and she _knows_ the others are coming. She can feel it.

\---

Once upon a time, what feels like years ago now, she had a dream, something she thought might be a vision:

_She’s standing tall, a beautiful, prosperous tree. She can hear and see everything around her, including the rest of Vox Machina charging away, with purpose, toward something just out of her line of sight._

_“For Keyleth!” Vax shouts._

_“For Keyleth!” the group choruses._

The dream she had before this battle was much different:

_“I still miss her,” Vax says, Gilmore’s arms wrapped snugly around him._

_“We all do, my love,” he murmurs._

The first unsettled her.

The other is--strangely, perhaps--almost comforting.

\---

Chaos reigns around her.

Keyleth breathes deeply, feels the power coursing through her veins, and knows this is only the beginning. She’s ready. _They’re_ ready.

She was right, she finally realizes. They _can_ do this.

And they will.


End file.
